Back on top of the world at 60

Woman regains her wings after 44 years



PEPPY PILOT—Above, Simi Valley resident Angela Larcomb pilots a Piper Warrior airplane on July 13 out of the Camarillo Airport. She had learned tofly as a teenager and worked as aflight instructor, but had given upflying when she had children. Theflight was a birthday gift from her husband, Scott. Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

PEPPY PILOT—Above, Simi Valley resident Angela Larcomb pilots a Piper Warrior airplane on July 13 out of the Camarillo Airport. She had learned to fly as a teenager and worked as a flight instructor, but had given up flying when she had children. The flight was a birthday gift from her husband, Scott. Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

July 15, 1974, was a landmark day for Angela Larcomb.

It was her 16th birthday, and Angela would be making her first solo flight that day in a Cessna, and family and friends had gathered at Van Nuys Airport to watch.

Her mother, Mary Melton, remembered the event: She said she felt proud of her daughter, but she was also in shock.

Right up until Angela climbed into the cockpit, Mary said, she had no idea that her husband, Jim, a private pilot who had flown reconnaissance missions in World War II, had been secretly paying for flying lessons for their second-oldest daughter.

“I almost went through the roof,” the San Fernando Valley resident said. “I never knew about it. It was a secret between my daughter and my husband. I never would have approved, you see.”

Last week, 44 years later, Angela’s family gathered again to watch as the mother of four and grandmother of two got behind the controls of a twin-engine Piper Warrior for her first flight in decades.

SAFETY FIRST—Pilot Angela Larcomb andflight instructor Jack Pollock perform a preflight check before herfirstflight at the age of 60.

SAFETY FIRST—Pilot Angela Larcomb and flight instructor Jack Pollock perform a preflight check before her first flight at the age of 60.

This time, the experience was pure joy for Mary, who said she could see her late husband’s passion for flying shining in Angela’s eyes.

“I’ve never seen your eyes so lit up,” Mary told her daughter.

Jen Sanchez, one of Angela’s daughters, said she felt as if the spirit of her grandfather, who died five years ago, was there with the family.

“They had a special connection,” Sanchez said. “They were always doing things together. My mom was a total tomboy.”

Her hourlong flight out of Camarillo

Airport on July 13 was a surprise gift for her 60th birthday from Angela’s husband, Scott Larcomb.

The couple married in 1984, moved to Simi Valley, and Angela eventually swapped her wings for diapers, she said.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m pregnant. I can’t fly anymore,’ which was silly, looking back at it now,” Angela said. “But motherhood took over.”

Back in her teenage years, Angela would take the bus from her family’s home in Winnetka to the airport in Van Nuys for flying lessons, she said.

Following her solo flight in 1974, she earned a commercial pilot’s license at age 18. She worked as a flight instructor at Van Nuys Airport for a number of years before giving up flying to raise her family.

But last week, as she ran through a routine inspection checklist on the Piper aircraft with pilot Jack Pollock, 67, Angela said she was eager to get back into the air.

“I think it’s fabulous,” she said.

After the flight, she said the experience had been “fantastic.”

“It was just wonderful,” she said back on the ground. “It was a trip down memory lane. I realized how much I really missed it. . . . It would love to do it again, but we’ll see. We’re remodeling our house right now. But maybe in a couple of months, I might go back up.”